August 2010

[lurley]

Trying to see if I can attach photos of my paste tomatoes, among others, and a picture of my tomato sauce before it is cooked. Let's see how it goes. For all the photos hit the link below. SOME I have managed to post to this page (with help)
http://s1133.photobucket.com/albums/m583/lurleybeth/

[FILMNET]

setup photobucket first add photos then copy the address to here

[lurley]

Thanks so much! I got to the advanced and manage attachments part of the directions but then couldn't get past the paper clip, then my images were too large and I ruined one of them in paint trying to resize it. Never heard of photobucket but it was easy, no re-sizing necessary. Wanted to view them on the post but the link is quick and easy so that works for me

[FILMNET]

the IMG address under the photos on photo bucket you copy and place here to put shot here
this is for 1 file, for more file put another IMG address

[lurley]

Thanks again! With your help I was able to figure it out which is saying a lot because I'm computer inept

[FILMNET]

learning fast though!! what type of tomatos are these? I cut mine in quarters, herbs, garlic, onions, oil and cook in the over 425 for 1/2 hr , the food processor much swetter this way.

[kath]

Wow, Lurley!
Those are some gorgeous tomatoes! HUGE for pastes, no? Look like they make an amazing sauce as well. Very impressive-glad you learned how to post the photos to share-thanks.

[lurley]

I just wash and core all the ripe tomatoes and throw them into my large pressure canner with a quart of water. Turn on the heat with the 10#weight on and as soon as it jiggles I take it off so all the tomatoes inside explode. (something you would never, ever do with jars). Then I grab my spider and pull out all the tomato flesh and plop it into a large strainer and let it finish draining for a few minutes. Then everything goes through the victorrio (nor pro now?) where the seeds and skins are removed. All of the water from inside the tomatoes has been left behind in the canner or drained from the strainer so the sauce comes out this thick (spoon standing up straight in it) before I have even heated it up for canning at all. All I do is clean the canner, heat the sauce just enough to remove any air, pack the jars and process the sauce. I can process tons of tomatoes in a day this way and there is no long cooking down process to get sauce. Yes, my canner is aluminum, and yes I know about aluminum and acid but the tomatoes aren't in there very long and while they are(at least up until the end) their skins are intact so I'm not really worried about getting aluminum in my sauce.

[barefootgardener]

Yummy , sounds so good. I love sauce..That is a big paste tomato! Beautiful...Thank's for sharing your pics..

Ginny

[Karla]

Nice! paste tomatoes.Thanks! for sharing your photos.

[Mark0820]

Nice photos! Those paste tomatoes are huge. What variety of paste do you grow?

[lurley]

Like I told Ginny, I'm not really sure what kind they are. My dad gave me the seeds 20 years ago when I got my first house. He dug them out of his toolbox in the basement where they had been for 10 years ever since a friend had brought them back from Italy and gave them to him. He told me he wasn't sure if any would germinate since they were so old but I didn't have any problems with them and isolated them the first year to get a good seed supply started. I have been growing them for the lat 20 years and saving seeds from the largest ones. They are anywhere from 8 ounces to a pound and have almost no seeds or gel. The only commercially available paste tomatoes I have grown are amish paste, opalka, san marzano redorta, and polish linguisa, and only the polish even comes close to whatever these might be. In my family they are just called Lurley's paste because we don't know what else to call them and I'm the one that grows them and saves the seeds for the rest of the family members that have now taken up gardening.

[mjc]

Ummm....Lurley...that kind of qualifies them as an 'heirloom', so would you be interested in trading some of them?

[lurley]

Send me a PM

[casino]

That sauce is amazing. I have been trying for years to make sauce exactly like your pictures. Would you be willing to trade some of your seeds for a favorite of mine.

My favorite Paste tomato comes from my Italian neighbor pat Cici who when he came to America 50 years ago (or so) in his pocket he had these tomatoes and sweet Italian peppers. Pat Cici says Joe these are the best tomatoes you will ever eat. You can eat them fresh or make sauce. Well after many years I must confess these tomatoes have also become my favorites. Along with polish linguisa and San marzano Redorta. I have never used a pressure cooker to make sauce but you have inspired me to give it a try. There is no name to these seeds so we call them Casino the name of Pat Cici's hame town in Italy.